| Press Release Archive
Giant wind turbine passes through Austin;
59 turbines to be built for Austin Energy
With the price of natural gas increasing
by more than 400 percent during the last 18 months and expected
to stay at double 1999 prices for the next two years, the
cost for wind power has become competitive with fossil fuels
and may soon be the better price.
Austin Energy - Austin's community-owned
electric utility - will begin delivering 76 megawatts of electricity
from wind turbines to power more than 20,000 homes in time
for this summer's warm temperatures.
The first of Austin Energy's 59 wind turbines
that will be installed in West Texas stopped at Austin-Bergstrom
International Airport today en route on flat bed trucks to
Upton County near Midland. Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman was
on hand to view the wind turbines as well as 60 students from
Sanchez Elementary working on a renewable energy project for
their school.
The wind turbines have blades 100-feet long
and are more than 200-feet tall. The turbines will be erected
on a wind farm on a 10-square-mile mesa atop King Mountain
in West Texas 50 miles south of Midland. More than nine miles
of power lines connecting to the electric grid and a substation
already have been constructed to deliver electricity from
the turbines to Austin beginning in mid-summer.
The wind turbines are part of Austin Energy's
renewable energy program known as GreenChoiceSM. GreenChoice
gives customers the opportunity to purchase renewable energy
from wind power and methane gas captured from decaying garbage
in landfills located in San Antonio, Houston and near Dallas.
GreenChoice helps customers protect the
environment because the renewable energy does not release
emissions or deplete the earth of natural resources. GreenChoice
also gives customers a hedge against rising fuel costs because
the standard fuel charge on their monthly bill is replaced
with a green power charge that remains fixed for the next
10 years. For this reason, GreenChoice customers could be
paying less for electricity than non-subscribers in the near
future if the cost for natural gas continues to rise.
More than 3,000 residential customers to
date have signed up for the program as well as 58 small businesses
and 17 large commercial customers including major businesses
and government agencies. The major customers include Samsung,
AMD, IBM, 3M, Solectron, Apple, Fisher-Rosemount, PSINet,
Four Seasons Hotel, Hyatt Regency, La Quinta, Habitat Suites,
LBJS Broadcasting, State Farm Insurance, Heart Hospital of
Austin, the Governor's Mansion, and the Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission. Customers can subscribe to GreenChoice
online at www.austinenergy.com or by calling 499-7827.
Austin Energy is contracting with Cielo
Wind Power of Austin and Renewable Energy Systems to develop
the wind ranch. Cielo Wind Power has developed several projects
including a 107-turbine operation near McCamey, currently
Texas' largest wind farm. Construction is under way on two
major projects including a 242-turbine, 160-megawatt ranch
in Pecos County and the 214-turbine, 279-megawatt wind farm
in Upton County where Austin Energy's wind turbines will be
situated.
For more information, contact Ed
Clark, Public Information.
Phone: (512) 322-6514
Pager: (512) 802-2000
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